December 26, 1995

We are crossing the South Side on the Dan Ryan. At around 35th street, as the rows of boarded up CHA high rises slide past us, R—’s mother screws up her face and asks: “What subdivision is this?”

March 20, 1996

They are from New Zealand, an island where everyone lives in one building owned by the government.

May 5, 2008

Sing it out loud, as loudly as possible, to everyone you encounter.

May 15, 2008

We are now the #3 hit on Yahoo Image Search for “schnauzers”.

May 19, 2008

He didn’t have a monocle and the tips of his mustache weren’t waxed into curlicues.

August 9, 1997

Don’t sell your Joan Jett records.

January 3, 1998

“Mayor Daley announced another major upgrade in 1973: $7.50 million would be spent to replace the fourteen-year-old bluish white mercury-vapor lamps with yellowish high-pressure sodium-vapor ones. Some of the first efforts centered on high-crime areas like Lawndale, while sodium-vapor advocates cited their higher energy efficiency and greater illumination. In spite of objections, the program moved forward and was completed in 1981 with the installation of high-pressure sodium in all the alleys. For several years, the debate over the lights sizzled. But it was clear that being the 'best lighted city' now meant being the 'most lighted city'. Even areas that were traditionally treated with great attention to design felt the change... The urbane ranks of globe-topped standards have been replaced by what Harry Weese has called 'a marching column of rickety double bracketed orange-tipped fruit gibbets,' whose 'orange pools of late night light are wasted on empty stages waiting for crime.'

“The sodium-vapor controversy also reached into the suburbs, especially those with architecturally or historically significant street lighting systems... The controversy raged most fiercely in Oak Park and Evanston... In Evanston, the city council's efforts to scrap all 6,800 lights in 1976 were met with immediate and widespread protest... [Eventually,] the city decided to reject crime as a reason for bright, high-pressure sodium vapor lights, and to allow neighbors to decide on the wattage of bulb to be used...”

— Mark J. Bouman, “‘The Best Lighted City in the World’: The Construction of a Nocturnal Landscape in Chicago”, Chicago Architecture and Design: 1923-1993

October 13, 1995

If I stub my toe and yell “ouch!”, is the “ouch!” expressive?

February 4, 1998

You challenge another person by naming an Anthony Braxton album title, but you leave off the year at the end. That person has to name the year. If they get it wrong, they have to drink. Or, they can challenge you back, and if you were bluffing and didn’t know the year yourself, or if the title you named wasn’t even a real title, then you have to drink. Whoever drank then challenges someone else. And so on.

April 1, 2000

Happy Birthday, Badtz-Maru!!

January 7, 1997

“Gorky was touched deeply and soaked my vest with his tears. I started to feel a bit proud. But then, Gorky soaks the vest of every poet with his tears. Nevertheless, I will keep the vest as a souvenir.” — Vladimir Mayakovsky

January 9, 1997

I should start taking photographs at shows.