Me and guv’ner

So as soon as I heard that our very own Illinois Gov. Blagojevich was arrested this morning and was being held in a jail cell today, I thought of the card that I had made over the weekend.  Every time I make one of these cards, which is part of a deck that is grown to almost 50 (!), I share it with my card making group, and then I write a whole bunch about it the next day. Here are some kernels of wisdom this particular  card said to me…we always start with the “I am the one who…” phrase:

“I am the one who is inside a thick cushioned snowsuit-muting the outside world, paralyzing movement, getting fat and useless. I am the one who is a beat up car that’s most vital parts are rusting. I am the one whose parts are missing. I am the one who has painted over the same walls with 18 layers of old paint, glossing over history. I am the one who is a thick metal heavy door that hates to be opened and rarely ever does. I am grey matter that is quiet, muted, underground and with no new ideas.”

Man, this card’s a total drag. And it’s been overcast and sleeting all day. I’m sure it’s as sunny outside as it is in Rod Blagojevich’s jail cell today. Now is the Chicago winter of our discontent.

 

The 2009 Calendar Debut is here!

The moment we all have been waiting for: The unveiling of the 2009 Calendar of Famous Chicago Graves! 

You can visit me and pick one up in person at the ArtWalkRavenswood: http://www.artwalkravenswood.org/ this weekend. (In addition to the calendars, I will have greeting cards, new paintings, and fine art prints for sale. It’s free to look! And did I mention you get to see live artists stand near their work?)

I am offering the calendars for $15 as a special ArtWalk discount this weekend only! They will be for sale on-line at my etsy store as well for $20 starting now and after the ArtWalk. 

This homegrown 2009 calendar, collaged lovingly by hand, features 12 gravesites “brought to life” in the Chicagoland area. ( January: Marshall Field, February; Victims of Al Capone’s St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, March: Oscar Mayer, April: Dick Tracy cartoonist, May: Emma Goldman, June: Circus Disaster Gravesite, July: Mrs. O’Leary-and her legendary cow, August: bicycle maker, Ignaz Schwinn, September: the legendary ghost and statue of Inez Clarke, October: Chicago’s famous ghost, Ressurection Mary, November: Enrico Fermi, December: Indian burial grounds.) Learn about rich history buried around Chicago and keep track of your days at the same time!

 

Laundromat Handwriting

Here is a portion of a handwritten moving sale notice. It was taped to the wall at the laundromat. I tore a portion of the writing while trying to keep the main message in tact. I just needed this little bit. I looked up the strange characters in an old handwriting analysis book. Much like a dream interpretation book, it is full of more generalizations than I am usually comfortable with…at any rate, I looked up this overlapping coiling motion this writer did, particularly in the o’s and d’s. This poor writer is just trying to sell a set of tables and chairs and here I am scrutinizing the shape of their letter d.

Here’s what the book said:

Or maybe it more closely resembled this:

Well, there you go. If you want those table and chairs, you’ll have to live with the fact that the previous owner had  narcissistic tendencies, or maybe extreme autoerotism, and could have been dishonest.

…extra irony points if you connected the keyboard in the background to the handwritten letters in the first picture.

 

For hire…Irish Grave Maestro

It just so happened that my Irish fiddle instructor, Jessica, and I were both working on the South side of Chicago Wednesday afternoon. There’s no better way to take a mid-week break than to stroll through your local graveyard. We decided to meet up in Mount Olivet Cemetery (111th St.) and pay homage to Chief O’Neill, for whom the bar on Elston is named after and for the tune that is still played today. You may know my other mortal expedition to Graceland Cemetery that produced Miss October that graced the 2008 Calendar. See those pics at my flickr page.

Francis O’Neill was an Irish immigrant who became Chief of Police in the early 1900’s and had a great influence on Irish music here in Chicago. I’m a little confused on the history so I hope we’re standing in front of the right monument…the apparently official story from Chief O’Neill’s Pub says he died in 1936. So maybe 1904 was a really big year for him? PBS also did a bit about him a while back…

We took a peak in the side window where glass had broken. Anyone care to shed more light on those urn-like things resting on the opposite windowsill?

While we were admiring this burial site, our new friend, Bob Carten, came walking along and started to chat. He, like Chief O’Neill, is a retired cop. He has an extensive history to share as his life story came literally spilling out of his wallet.

We even got the polka dot car to join in:

I took out my digital recorder for the playing of Chief O’Neill’s Favorite Hornpipe in front of Chief O’Neill’s grave…with Bob’s life stories floating in and out of earshot. When I got home that night, I played back the track and realized that it never stopped recording. I will spare you all five hours of it. I’ve narrowed it down to five fascinating minutes of mostly cemetery wind. You’ll also barely catch snippets of Bob’s stories, Irish fiddle playing, more wind, and at the end you hear me zip up the recorder inside my fiddle case while we’re still talking. Oops!

Bob requested we play some fiddle tunes in front of his father’s grave at some point. That would be an interesting niche market, no? Check your local listings soon…”Tombstone maestro for Hire.” Bob is also looking for a way to share or publish his stories. This blog is a start.

Because I only want to share the perfectly “enhanced podcast” through the best technology available to me, I will post the podcast of our cemetery visit in the next post. Translation: I’m not so tech saavy with zee audio file and still workin’ on it. So, check back soon.

 

Remembering Someone Who Made Things

I went over to my father’s place to make marinara sauce Monday night. We had to measure stuff so it was good in a quantifiable way but not in an intuitive hummus way. It was then that I learned that my Great Uncle Bob had passed away Sunday night at the age of 81. Bob Cunniff was a writer for Sesame Street, The Dick Cavett Show, The Today Show, and others. He won an emmy for his Sesame Street writing. Pardon my youtube-ing here:

or who could forget one of his classics: C is for Cookie? (Watch the whole thing, you know you want to blast C is for Cookie in the workplace right now.)

In 2004, I met up with Uncle Bob in NYC and we walked around Greenwich Village sharing stories and noticing all the pigeons in Washington Square Park, not unlike the pigeons gracing Sesame Street. He interviewed many famous people for his other shows as well. Uncle Bob tells one story, “This man calls me up and says, ‘Mr. Cunniff, I just got back from Vietnam and I’d like to go on your show and protest the war.’ So I agreed and let John Kerry have his television debut.”

I don’t want to name-drop here but you only get one Uncle Bob. He interviewed Dr. King, made phone calls to Charlie Chaplin, was a pal of Barbara Walters and his daughter is the singer, Jill Cunniff of Luscious Jackson. Yup, he’s good peoples.

During my road trip across the country, I wrote long emails chronicling the journey. My dad fowarded them on to Uncle Bob to read. I am very proud to say an Emmy Award-winning Uncle liked my writing and thought it was “breezy.” I’ll take it. I don’t know what Uncle Bob would think of this blogging business though. Please have a cookie today in honor of Uncle Bob.