On Becoming That Guy at the Party: The Dilemma of Poor Johnny One Note
Imagine you’re at a dinner party. (And for those less inclined to go to anything as bougie as a dinner party, imagine a house party or a party that includes people drinking and eating and talking—you know, a fucking party…)
Notes from the Post-it Wall – Week of June 25, 2017
• Success is by design. And when it comes to design, some people have terrible taste.
Now Available: Troll to Learn™ for All Your Internet Needs
Let TROLL TO LEARN™ remind you:
Antagonistic language is your tool, but be smart: Let the Trollee utter the profanities first. Be prepared to see the dark side of the Trollee you only assumed might be there. It has many shapes.
Nothing is Sacred. Not Even You
That was the saying above the theater that WNEP occupied for a couple of years on the corner of Halsted and Belmont.
It meant a lot of things in those six words.
You are not not exempt, as an audience member, from being required to participate.
Nothing in the content within the walls (and minds of the creators) is sacrosanct. Nothing is out of bounds. All sacred cows will be skewered, roasted and eaten rare.
We are artists and we are not somehow the world's very precious tellers of truth. Likewise, your opinion of our work means only as much as we allow it.
It meant that YOU (and WE) are not special.
Who's Afraid of Hedy Weiss?
The artist makes art. The critic deconstructs that art so that people who don’t understand art can try to pretend to understand art. The artist and the critic are not on the same team. They are opposite sides of the same coin. And the opposite sides of the same coin can never see eye-to-eye.
I Believe... [Street Fests Are SOOOO White]
The Pristine City Clerk Worker
No one likes having to go to the Office of the Chicago City Clerk. Not even those who get paid for being there. The desk workers on the first floor in the City Clerk’s office are of the same ilk as DMV workers. They are always tired, annoyed, smarter—yet dumber—than you, wield a surprisingly unnatural amount of power and have a general disdain for a good majority of humanity. And who can blame them? They work for idiots and get dumped on by the citizens who elected those idiots all day long.
How Communist Did You Have to Be to Be, You Know, COMMUNIST?
You didn't have to be a communist, you didn't have to have friends who were communists. All you had to have was the whiff of possibility—you said something to someone, you complained about your job, you cheated on the wrong girlfriend—if the Committee decided you were a communist, the power of public opinion and the scrutiny of those self-righteous fear mongers using hyperbolic language to paint you as a communist, you were guilty of being a communist.
Slippery Slopes Always Go in the Same Direction
Some might see the cultural desires to censor uncomfortable speech as the end all, be all of the problem but the culture of victimhood—the one that provides more rewards societally in playing the aggrieved than not—is the beginning of so many slippery slopes. Most of these slopes we cascade down begin as a struggle to expand definitions. "Hate speech." "Harassment." "Rape Culture." "Privilege." The expansion of discriminated classes and marginalized groups—from women, to POC, to Obese People, to Demisexuals—is the perfect example of a well intentioned beginning that slips downward.
Cutting Off Your Nose
There are thousand ways to sell your idea in the marketplace of them.
Every NFP org out there (and there are a LOT of them) has the schtick to get you to part with a few of your dollars so they can continue to operate. Lots of causes know how to use Kickstarter and IndieGo. Public radio shills to you by reminding you three or four times a year how you listen to them and need to pony up a couple ducets to keep listening. Hell, even the multitudes of homeless are trying get a few ounces of silver and ask you as you pass the Starbucks for it with a hopeful but determined look.
The techniques range from
You Can't Live Without This Thing
You Can Assuage Your Guilt By Giving Money to This Thing
Without This Thing Society Will Collapse
TRUMP Hates This Thing So Pay Me For It!
And then there is this:
Notes from the Post–it Wall – Week of June 18, 2017
• If my approach to being a dog parent is any indication of how I’ll be as a parent to a human, I’m going to wake the kid up to snuggle with it and throw things at its face.
Remember Watergate, or Else
So history is repeating itself here. In the early 1970s, we had a president pulling a Brock Turner on the Constitution, and today we, allegedly and potentially, are witnessing the same thing happen.
I Believe...
...that I really didn't need to know about the drugs in Carrie Fisher's system but I do need to know how the jury acquitted the cop who murdered Philando Castile.
Change Takes Fuel and We're Using it up on Bullshit
The Internet is a giant puddle of vomit from our minds all over the ether and my suggestion is that you use its power to protest things that matter to humanity and society rather than you and your four friends. And, no, you and your outrage do not represent anyone but you.
The Devil Made Me Do It or How We've Found Excuses for Fucking Everything
Several cops shoot a guy 47 times. This is not about wounding or incapacitating him; this is about killing him as dead as dead can be. The rationale (in a legal sense) is that they were in fear for their lives. As if fear for life justifies shooting someone 47 times.
A Chicago kid gets shot in a drive-by shooting caught between two street gangs warring over a moment of personal disrespect. When the gangs are called into question, family members and neighborhood activists place the blame on white supremacy keeping these otherwise stand up citizens in a system where they have no choice but to shoot one another.
An angry Fundamentalist Religious type decides that he needs to kill a bunch of people in a social setting to make a point. Instead of blaming the guy for being a homicidal asshole, we blame the religion. He, of course, blames the media or women or the Devil.
Eric Trump’s Bedtime Prayer
"Chopping Wood" | It's All in the Fundamentals
Charlie “Yardbird” Parker transformed himself from decent saxophone player into one of the most influential jazz musicians of the last 100 years. The change happened during a 10-month period, when Parker essentially dropped out of the scene and worked deeply on his craft.
By fully immersing himself in an environment that pushed his mastery, he reemerged on a path to becoming a legend.
Notes from the Post-it Wall – Week of June 11, 2017
• Is the old waitress at the café who is calling me sweetheart flirting with me? Because it’s working.
Shut Up and Make Some Art
Artists get paid so little on the middle to the bottom of the pile because Any asshole can say he's an artist. A degree means dick unless you're going to go into Arts Administration and, even then, grad school isn't about what you learn but who you impress and befriend. If everyone who felt a need to help his fellow man could simply declare that he was a doctor could be, in fact, a doctor, then being a doctor would have very little employable value.
I Believe... [Get Your Feet Offa My Plane!]
...that it really is completely unacceptable to get on a five-hour flight, take off your sandals and put your bare feet up on the seat in front of you. My response was simply to look at him and his feet and say "No. Not gonna happen." He put his sandals back on.
The second voice arrived on Thursday morning while Monte was attempting to make toast.