yeah, vague, sorry. i sorta knew the guy/band but it wasnt someone i listen to. so i am drawing a blank. i'll say doh when someone knows.
she was an adorable little african american girl, no more than 10 ircc.
tried to search through the lounge, but no luck.

i wanted to send the vid to my son the 30 yo drummer to give him something to strive for.
jk. just thought he's get a kick out of her, and i know he knows who the guy is.

anyone?

when he was taken to the hospital last april, his neighbors got together to sing his songs, and wish him get well.
sadly, he died the next days.
this is worth the half hour.

nicole and neil degrass tyson about shatner's trip.
he wants to see all kinds of people make the trip, artists, poets, musicians, teacher. people who can share the transformative experience.
then he says- send the politicians first. they'll come back holding hands.
so, who should we send?

great thoughts on messaging for dem here. about half way through.
"dont take your policy out it public, it's unseemly"
"stop selling the recipe, start selling the brownie."
dont say- we got you a child tax credit. say-we helped you work and feel secure about your child.
good stuff.

i know there was a law firm that went down, but i dont think they went to jail.
i dont recall any prosecutions.

were there any? am i just not paying attention?


eta- yeah, i didnt think so.

my grandpa and my ggrandpa were both farriers in chicago. ggramps had a blacksmith's shop. i think the biz might go back 1 more generation aw well. that would be the guy who came here for ireland in that branch of the fam.
gramps was 14 when he died, and tried to take it over, but couldnt cut it.
so he made his living as a farrier. i think they would have needed licenses. that would tell me where the shop was, etc.

as i started to post this thread i remembered that uic has a huge collection of early municipal records. so, i hit them up, chatted w a librarian who couldnt find anything. he suggested i send an email to the special collections librarian, which i did.

i have no idea if there even was a license required for those trades in those years. but a farriers license is a thing. if not that, hoping they will find some business records.

anyone ever used this kind of record to fill out your story?

so, a friend of mine from my days on the board of my ward dem committee, is jay paul deretany.
he is one of chicago's most successful personal injury attorneys, and he ran for judge and asked for our endorsement. we formed a mutual admiration society right then and there and have stayed in touch.
one day a judge assigned him to defend a young man in who had barely survived his time in foster care from the kind of charges kids like that him end up catching- drugs, assaults...

and off he went on a crusade to change the foster care system.
he wrote and produced a movie, 'foster boy', w shaquille o'neil. if you havent seen it, find it and watch it.
so, he shared this petition of fb today-
https://fixfostercare.org/?fbclid=IwAR2t7-UAqgsq-7n1Av12TxGX3Ue0q22WrYboycZUkvEPBOFhoiU-dmPpzTc

as well as this radio interview-
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-s_xVA8BfW6RoOTMAulo9v4pCAXPRsNp/view?fbclid=IwAR0XjnU1EHxLAPwAgBV5unuZ18GvWCEQLzv-w6hzz5JxEtSxMNDns4z0I1M

20 minutes, full of good advice to fix this broken god damned system where 40% of the kids who age out end up dead, incarcerated, or homeless w/in 4 yrs. including how to get involved and make a difference.

please take a minute to sign this petition, and listen if you can find 20.


ftrt, jay is gay, married, has no kids of his own. imho evolution gave us gay people because it figured out that 2 people are not enough to raise kids. dont know a gay person who isnt some kid's wingman.

i mean, i wish people i call could have my id.
any legit company probably wishes they could signal customers that it's a legit call. my vm says if you arent in my contacts, i'm not answering your call. but if i had a clue, i'd pick up a lot of calls. like the good old days.

sure, they'll start spoofing those soon. but hey, a fake id is a lot easier to share w others than a spoofed phone number. so, limited downside imho.

am i the only one?

so, i went to nyc that october. as a working artist at the time, i felt it was almost a duty to see it. it was the only time i did what w told me to do.
the smoke and smell of death were still belching out of the manholes. i smelled it when i stepped out of the airport in newark.
they were just starting to hose down the ash.

i was walking around soho, and saw a huge line, wrapped around the block, to get into a gallery.
what it was was- here is new york.
it was a collection of photos of every day new yorkers, hung from wires, filling the gallery.
it was the most incredible sight. part of why the line was so long was that you looked at it all, and you just froze. or cried.

they were still taking submissions, so when i got home i submitted a few of mine. they dont come up in the search, tho.
they later published a big book of them.
they put it all online, and it's still there.

https://911digitalarchive.org/collections/show/260