Peace

7 people killed in a  gay bar "La Madame" in Xalpa, Veracruz...and then 50 killed at "Pulse" in Orlando. So sad. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWgNS8IzZ8I

A Music Room (And A Kitchen Table)

 We have moved the whole apartment around. We needed to make room for huge paintings. Stagg has a show coming up....so he needs room. Somehow I switched around all the tech, putting record player in kitchen tv in middle room, computer in study.....so I put Stagg's bass amp in the room here. With my guitar and Ukulele we have a sort of music room.

 We ook apart a kitchen table and moved this big table in here....we had in studio....so now more room over all. We have a little too much furniture, which i guess was a pretty nice problem to have. So some stuff has been given away.

Food Justice

 Being a Food Justice advocate I was pretty excited to see some other Food Justice activists in their work environment and urban gardens today. I met some of the creators of Cooperation Operation last month at the Burner Grant Event and they were the first place recipients. I met with Liz since the event and just asked her so many questions about how her organization created their urban garden, how their mutual group all are from the southside of Chicago and have families that extend back generations in the south side as a common factor in wanting to grow food in a food desert.

The Cooperation Operation (Coop Op) is a non-profit community organization that transforms vacant urban land into spaces for educational and economic empowerment. They envision a world where all people have access to affordable healthy food, education, housing, employment, and critical social services.

The land I visited today is in Pullman and originally the organizers approached their Alderman for support in reclaiming industrial land for food. The Alderman pledged them a five year lease and since then, the Pullman district has been named a National Monument and 

is a component in the National Park System.

 Liz Nerat, a writer and board of directors for the Coop Op led a writing workshop today. she really has a gift for teaching and facilitating. I was impressed with her focus during the heat, puppies, my crazy questions and some of the participants have self-doubts (me included!) she kept us all going. We also laughed so much! 

The Davis Theatre

 I love the Davis Theatre it's one of the main venues I see movies in. We used to live down the street...and since working a block away I often will go to a movie after work. The Davis was built in 1918 as a vaudeville theatre. The owners have been in the middle of a huge renovation for months. I took these pictures and what a thrill! The owners didn't know there was app organ behind a wall. The Wurlitizer will be part of of the new design and the builders and owners are adding a bar. Oh How I love movie theaters!!! This movie house is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Related Links:

https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20150623/lincoln-square/davis-set-for-4m-upgrade-adding-restaurant-mod-vintage-touches

https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20151109/lincoln-square/davis-renovation-starts-get-peek-at-grandeur-hidden-for-decades

Rainmaker, R.I.P.

RAINMAKER, R.I.P. I had early Prince albums. You know the early ones, but it was 1999 that really blew me away and I obsessed over it in a different way. I used to lie alone on my floor playing it all night. I loved the album cover. In some ways it was the album cover that made it different than his earlier albums to me. I wa so into the artwork. I was so into the color purple and the cartoony drawings that were on the front cover. And I must have starred dreaming at Prince in bed forever. When I went out dancing and anything tfrom this album came on I was so excited. Look at Princes ROOM. Look at him in bed! His room as so cool! I am an artist and there he is with his watercolours!!! I didn't write an obit yet for Prince. I usually write something when someone I care about dies, in fact, I'm actually kind of good at writing tributes for an obit. I have a section on my blog. But I just didn't know where to start for Prince and I would cry when I did start. Last week I heard "Little Red Corvette" on the radio and I really lost my shit. Of all the Prince songs, why this one? I didn't even list it as one of my favorites of his. But hearing that song tore me apart. The hope, the freedom, the desire in those lyrics. Somehow Prince took the great American car anthem and made it so special and unique and young again: he locked swords with all those youthful greaser songs and made it so deep and tragic. When he sings with a screeched forced high cry "And I say the ride is so smooth" it felt like my heart would break. I didn't know that this week it would really break. I am so sad. It was the autopsy report that got me focused to write this obit finally....I had been putting it off. To think of Prince all alone, in his elevator dying from an overdose....not safe, not with anyone I think of how Prince kept me company when I was all alone. I think of the tragedy of him losing his wife, his baby and just being so alone and vulnerable. I know people say he had a lot of pain. The rumour is he had blown out his hips, his knees and feet from dancing and jumps. If he didn't opt for surgery he chose pain relief. I guess. But you know, I am a bit of a conspiracy theorist. And I am with Dick Gregory on this one...I think someone turned away and let Prince die. He had got his music rights back. He had stuck it to the man. And any news reports coming from TMZ have to be taken with caution seeing as who owns TMZ? Time Warner. I am so sad that for whatever reason, Prince was alone and taking opiates. And I am sad we live in a world where art and evil are institutionalized.I am sad we live in a world where the news agencies are owned by the people who oppress us and produce art. And I am so inconsolably sad tat Prince was so strong and smart yet still so vulnerable. What if god was one of us, just a slave like one of us?