Dear Matt,
I’m in a band. An old-time chick band. We call ourselves the ‘black-eyed susies’ I play fiddle, and the others play guitar, banjo, and another fiddle. The other fiddler is a computer programmer so she threw a web site up last week. It’s terribly done, and completely useless at the moment. But check back in about a month, and hopefully I’ll have had some time to put together some sort of design. I bought a silk-screening kit over the weekend, and plan on making lots of old-timey t-shirts. And plans are underway for black-eyed susies action figures.
Sincerely,
Coleen Heine, St. Louis MO
Dear Matt,
Last night I sprinted for a couple minutes with high-school kids during conditioning, and thought I might black out or puke. Went out for beers with tennis pros till high-noon at the local Off Track Betting Parlor, one pro used to be a manager there and knew all the nice old hags well. Very funny night.
Have a tennis lesson at 8, me alone and four ladies, this couple hours a day really brings me down, feel squeamish. Keep looking and made aware of the clock hours before I bring my tennis carnival to the court.
Sincerely,
Mark Hansen, Indian Head Park IL
Dear Matt,
Nice to see that your still living la vida loca!!!! I still wanna get to the states as well if I can in September … money permitting. Anyway hope the museum shit is good and keep in touch!!!Richard Sayer, Orange AUSTRALIA
Still working on the cute show. Sitting in front of my computer too much, I think it has gotten louder. There is a hum that is unstoppable and it’s driving me nuts. I need to get a quieter machine. I am going to investigate where I can buy a stolen laptop. I am willing to spend $200.
I haven’t heard back from the gay cult.
I saw guy driving a brand new Cadillac get pulled over and arrested right in front of the museum, I think he stole the car.
There is a new show up of blurry photos of architecture that everyone seems to like.
Me, Kate E, Mark, Andrea (one of Kate E’s coworkers), and possibly Sam are in the market for a new apartment, hopefully a giant loft with low rent.
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Wednesday afternoon we had a Humble Empire (me, Kate E., Mark, and Sam) field trip to the Mexican Fine Arts Center just south of the city. There was a show there that has about a dozen Frida Kahlo paintings. People like Frida Kahlo, especially when Selma Hyek is Frida Kahlo. The gift shop was too expensive.
Mark’s favorite painting, ‘Diego on my Mind’
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Wednesday night we all went to this KU bar called KIncaids to watch the KU vs. A&M basketball game and drink bottles of beer that cost one dollar and eat sloppy nachos that were piled high. We drank more than we watched the game. Ran into some old school chums including Matt Smith.
We had a good time. On our way home from the bar we got pulled over by an unmarked cop car. [The stoplight turned greet, we turned left b/f the oncoming traffic started] The cop looked at Mark’s insurance card and saw that it was insured under his dad’s name, then commented “Does your father know you drive like an idiot?”
Then Mark had to get out of the car to be intimidated for a few minutes, while the rest of us counted our cash anticipating posting bail. Fortunately, it wasn’t necessary.
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Friday night I went to the best concert of my entire life. No kidding. Sage Francis. I still can’t put together the thoughts of why I liked it so much.
One of the openers, CR Avery, rocked acapella/beatbox style, then broke out his harmonica and casio keyboard.
Sage was backed by a live band. As a band alone they were nothing to write home about, but sounded great a the back up. Sage had a well put together set with minimal between song chatter. The crowd knew all the words to the songs and the place was packed with emo kids who love the hip-hop music. That was a big part of why it was so good I think — you could tell that all the performers were stoked by the crowd participation.
Plus Sage’s album, Personal Journals, was my pick for best album of 2002.
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Bad music, good food. Saturday night me and Mark cruised to a show in Wicker Park at this venue called Big Horse. You walk through this taco shop and there is a bar and a stage in the back. Probably could fit 200 people tops. Pretty cool venue.
The music was bad. I couldn’t stop thinking about how all of these people were in private school. Private school and rock n’ roll. The kids had great enthusiasm though.
After heading to another bar, we went to The Hollywood Grill, where Chicago eats. This is one of the most popular all night diner’s on the NW side. Literally every race and walk of life was represented in there; rappers, wise-guys, latina girls, indie kids, working stiffs, and whatever the hell we are.
Hollywood grill has the best toast.
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Been thinking about how I don’t want to have a structured life. I’ll let you know what that means if I figure it out.