restaurant: Electric Lotus
occupation: Chris – IT guy :: Naomi – comedian
birthdate: Chris – 3.2.78 :: Naomi – 2.6.75
connection: Craigslist -> Your Local Gallery, One Minute Show -> Chris Bassett
Peter Leonard -> John Trippe -> Fecalface.com -> Shannon Burry -> Naomi Grossman
ordered: We all split the shrimp marsala, nan, and a mushroom dish. Several beers were had.
waiter: Kim

restaurant: Saddle Ranch
occupation: Alec – photographer :: Lea – actress
birthdate: Alec – 4.22.63 :: Lea – secret
connection: craigslist -> Julia Kim -> Desiree Holman -> Eden Batki -> Guarina Lopez -> Alec Hemer
La Craigslist -> Lea Abiera
ordered: Lea – BBQ pork :: Alec and I ordered all you can eat ribs w/ fries and beers. Complimentary lemon drop shots were provided by our host
waiter: Ryan

restaurant: Oomasa
occupation: Artist
birthdate: 12/18/76
connection: New Langton Arts -> Susan Joyce -> Remote Lounge, NYC -> Amy Robinson
ordered: we ordered a gang of sushi – octopus, seaweed salad, spicy tuna, spider roll, big squishy orange eggs, and California rolls
waiter: Satoru

restaurant: a Thai restaurant in Little Thailand
occupation: Artist and assistant to Paul McCarthy
birthdate: sometime in the late 70s
connection: Craigslist -> Julia Kim -> Desiree Holman -> Thomas Harris
ordered: we ordered some chicken skewers and a couple noodle dishes
waiter: unknown

dinner, tour, horowitz, thomasharris, paul_mcarthy

restaurant: Gino’s East
occupation: Marc – Advertising Copywriter :: Meaghan – Make-up artist and inventor :: Diane – Student and works at Gino’s East
birthdate: Marc – 12/4/77 :: Meaghan – 10/26/75 :: Diane – 8/1/84
connection: met everyone through the article that ran in the Chicago Tribune’s Redeye.
ordered: one pitcher diet coke, one regular. 1 large pepperoni and mushroom pizza
waiter: unknown

restaurant: Twin Anchors in Old Town
occupation: Mari – tech geek turned baker :: Wayne – employment lawyer
birthdate: Mari – 11.17.78 :: Wayne –
connection: met everyone through the article that ran in the Chicago Tribune’s Redeye.
ordered: Mari: Cheese Burger with Fries :: Me – the same as Mari :: Wayne – pork sandwich w/ onion rings :: beers were ordered by all
waiter: Elizabeth

restaurant: G’s Dawg n’ Burger; Celtic Crossing; The Drake Hotel’s Coq d’Or; Delilah’s; Los 3 Panchos
occupation: Surgeon
birthdate: 10/14/76
connection: went to high school together in Evansville, IN -> E-mail forwarded to him (haven’t seen or heard from him in five years)
ordered: hamburgers and fries; beer; coffee; beer; tacos

We started of from my hotel and walked down to G’s Dawg n’ Burger, ordered some burgers and fries. We decided to walk next door to the Celtic Crossing to have some beers with our meal. There we met John, the owner, and a recovering alcholic who wanted lots of information from Chad because of his background in medicine. We were harrassed by this guy for the duration of our meal. He showed us some of his paintings that were hung in the bar. We had a light conversation about Cooke Hospital, where Chad was doing his reidency. He suggested I see the movie Buckaroo Banzai and to check out the artists Paul Pfeiffer and Gabriel Kuri.

We than got into a conversaion about this weird wristwatch deice that he had to wear that tracked all of his vital statistics. It was issued to him by a group of scientists at Harvard who wanted to study the behavior and health of medical students going through their residency. He had to write down his sleep paterns and eating habits among other things for some period of time.
Somehow this led into conversation of Chad’s Guatamalan trip he took recently. He told a story about a bus trip he took there and missed his stop because he had taken some valium to comfort himself through the ride. He was kind of stuck at the end of the road.

Chad was always into Grafitti so we talked about the SF writer Dose Green for a while. Chad metioned that I should check out Dose 1, clouddead, themselves, and anticon.com. I tried writing, but I sucked badly and gave away my markers and paint. Chad on the other hand was pretty damn good, and we reminised about this old McDonald’s tray that he tagged up once.
I mentioned my interest in someday having my own TV show and Chad immediately said I should watch “Fishing with John Lurie” – where this fella who knows nothing of fishing takes personalities on a fishing trip and documents his experiences on the boat. He apparently has had Dennis Hopper and Jim Jarmusch among many. We then talked about the brilliance of Jackass, and how it has forever changed the practical joke, skate & snowboard videos, performance art, and the boundries of television programming.
We picked up, left the Celtic Crossing and headed to the Drake Hotel for a look and a bottemless cup of hot coffee in a swanky dimly lit joint – Coq d’Or. It was raining pretty good, so when we got there, it was very rewarding to find out there was a free buffet! We were too stuffed with the burger and fries, but it was just the fact that there was a free buffet that was comforting.
We caught up a great deal about relationships, old friends, and life’s changes. Chad made a call to an old friend Rob and we made plans to meet up with him after we checked out the Lee Bonteacu exhibit at the contemporary.

About 7:00 we ended up at this place called Delilah’s in a hip area of Chicago. Chad got lured in to ordered a cider and I had a Delerium Tremors. Rob showed up shortly thereafter. We all discussed Chad’s nickname “Sticky.” There were, we swear, months that went by for him without a shower.

I told them I wanted to take a cab accross the country and talked ab it about my other work, and Chad cited the Situationists. He said their theories were rooted in Marxist theory. Mobilizing the working class. He said that the working class that produces a Refrigerator, for example, are removed from both the people who will buy this product and from their task in making the product. The working class forming a large part of our consumerist society perpetuates the cycle of mass consumption and production. Chad continued by saying that as a solution, through “the Society of the Spectacle” Guy Debord, the self-proclaimed leader of the Situationists, outlines that workers should buy nothing, work for nothing, but quit your job and make works of art.

Chad suggested that I read “Crime think for Begginers,” a book on social anarchy. Do what you want to do now and things will happen – don’t prepare for the future. I drew the paralell of the anarchist concept of direct action. We got back to Guy Debord for a moment with his Alison in Wonderland dubovers, and then departed in the direction of magazines. Lumpn, Select Magazine, Cometbus by Aaron Cometbus, a berkeley punk rocker who wrote a book called “double duce.”

Rob, all riled up, said that there must be a way to bring down ticketmaster. He then briefly talked about his experiences working at Enterprise Rent-a-Car. He heard a good deal of contempt for the work, but said that the money was good and it was a job for now. Rob has always been such an optimist. Last time we hung out, we were trimming huge marijuana plants down and breaking them up into eigths. Torch Welding was briefly discussed, don’t remember exactly in what context.

Due to Chad’s extensive knowledge and love for music, the evening ended with a long discussion of Chad’s picks. Oddly though, we got involved in a short conversation about my motives to start the student ethics committee while at the Kelley School of Business. I was saved when Chad’s girlfriend Racheal showed up, and I quickly suggested we try some of Chicago’s finest tacos.

restaurant: Fresco
occupation: Editor/ Producer & Drummer
birthdate: 6/4/76
connection: E-mail forwarded to him at the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye Headquarters
ordered: Matt ordered a Capresa salad and a Chile ancho chicken sandwich and an iced tea. I ordered a Boddington’s, a Capresa salad, a bowl of cream of chicken soup, and washed it down with a cup of coffee.

Matt and I were seated in the patio section of this fine establishment. Chicago was living up to its Windy City reputation that evening, but thankfully we were dining in what might be considered a waiting room in a 14th century castle. Guarded by ten foot brick walls, two feet thick, and under a cozy umbrella, avoiding overhead fire, we started off with a round of drinks, an ice tea for him and a favorite Boddington’s draught for me. Matt was taking copious mental notes on his experiences for an article that he was writing for the Chicago Tribune.

We quickly realized our bond – we both grew up in the Midwest. Matt recently decided to move from his Wicker Park Apartment back home to save some money in order to buy a home. I think it would be a very bad idea to move back in with my mom; money saved – yes, mentally worth it – probably not. Naturally, I asked Matt about his journalism career. He didn’t do much writing in High School as he wasn’t there much – who really was? While in High School, I stole a pack of admission slips and learned all of the teacher’s initials – I ended up missing something like 70 or 80 days of my senior year. I would skip school and sit in a Walgreen’s parking lot smoking a corn cob pipe, reading discarded magazines and listening to the radio. Kids – unless your an excellent hacker, I don’t encourage this behavior, they have much better tabs on you now.

Matt explained that he began his writing career when he landed a job as the entertainment editor for his college paper. He claimed it was only a ploy to get loads of free music. While he was toiling away doing some good hard reporting, I was stuck working as parking lot attendant. What a shot job; Usually, I would open the gate and leave for a couple hours, nobody seemed to complain, who would? Only my boss, who fired me after learning of my escapades. After my unemployment, I tried my hand at selling weed. I was terrible, and quickly quit that to work at a local Italian restaurant owned by a bickering lesbian couple. The only perk, other than the fact that you felt like you were in some sort of reality television series, was the free wine, unbeknownst to the owners. I would usually end up hammered at the end of my shift; once I got nippered up a bit early and spilt snail juice in my accounting professor’s wine. Nodding after listening to my monologue, Matt continued, “After graduating from DePaul with a degree in English, I came home to work for the Tribune.”

Aside from meeting with strange people like myself, Matt rocks out in a three piece band. Apparently, he’s been playing music for quite awhile. This prompted Matt to launch into “music speak” – a language that every musician, headbanger, and groupie understands. He began mentioning countless bands and speaking music lingo. I agreed and hummed to mask my uncomfortableness in talking about music: I can’t memorize any song lyrics and my music history is about as shallow as a baby pool.

Quickly changing the subject, mentioning an artist residency I did at the San Francisco Sanitary Landfill a couple of years ago. While there, I found a woman’s slide collection – 19,000 of them to be exact, all numbered, labeled, and meticulously stored in beautiful aluminum cases. Matt’s eyes lit up and he told me about this father, mother, daughter group called the “Tractonburg Family Slideshow.” The ten year old girl rocks out on the drums, mom flips through carousels of found slides, and dad strums and makes up lyrics to the slideshow. Apparently, they were recently on Conan O’Brian. I guess I could do something like that if I only had a wife and daughter.

The food came and I explained my newest craze of wanting to suspend a pristine 1969 Camaro SS in a huge block of lucite. It would be an extremely expensive endeavor, but well worth it. It’s not everyday you take a walk, and see a car floating in plastic. Matt suggested I apply for a grant. Supposedly there is a source for grants for these kind of things in Minnesota – where else? A bunch of Minnesotans clustered around a wood burning stove making cabin-fever laced decisions to give crazies thousands of dollars to realize their dreams based on a two page essay and a handful of slides! Saving myself the trouble, “I think I’ll start with a miniature versions using a Hot Wheel” Matt nodded in agreement and ate a couple more fries.

A bit of silence passed and the photographer made his entrance – complete with his girlfriend, who incessantly talked on her cell phone beside us. She may as well been in my ear, like those worms in Star Trek, chirping and screaming – I could hear everything she was talking about it. You know these kind of people, rather then excusing themselves for a phone call, they’d rather stick around and turn up the volume, begin talking about their kidney stones or their neighbor’s diet.

He snapped a few pictures, and off in a jiffy with his lady, who was busy verbalizing her new something-or-other to her mother. I could have sworn the photographer was wearing some sort of cape. Anyhow, embarrassing moments became the topic. Once, while at a Young Life Camp, I got “pantsed” in the cafeteria. It was troubling enough being the only Jew at a Christian Camp, let alone having my pants pulled down to my ankles in front of a live audience. My penis dangled there for all to see. However, It quickly shrived up and my balls must have become aware of what was going on and shrunk as well. Everyone turned their head with my short shriek, and there I was, spectacle and entertainment. Before I could even hush “what the…,” “HOROWITZ, HOROWITZ, HOROWITZ,” quickly became the cafeteria’s chant. It still makes me shiver.

Matt had an equally compelling story. He was ten visiting the local public pool with his mom and sister. And having just seen the movie “Jaws,” Matt felt a compelling desire to scare his mother – JAWS style! So he went underwater and came up underneath her; he grabbed her leg with all of his might. She tossed back and forth, flailing her arms and legs as he hung on for dear life, listening to her muted yelps. Realizing his lack of gills, he sadly had to let go and surface for air. Up he came, with his devilish grin, to quickly find out it wasn’t his mother he was “jawsing,” but a foreign lady who couldn’t speak a lick of English. She yelled a few foreign obscenities and shot several harpooning stares. Matt quickly got out of her way, and noticed his mom and sister were sitting at the pool’s edge laughing it up.

waiter/photographer: Francisco

[tags]chicago, dinner, tribune, fun, tour[/tags]