Phone Messages

Chris Pearson describes his life in 1988 Chicago and how he entered his career as a decorative painter.

Albert Ayler lived a brief high intensity musical life in search of spiritual unity. John Coltrane and a few other supporters saw him as visionary, but he was largely underappreciated in his time.

David Durenberger served as Minnesota Senator from 1978 to 1995. He fell in the moderate middle of the Minnesota Republican Party,

Was it Anne that left this message in Fall of 1988? If it was Anne, which Anne was it? And where was I that night? Did we go up north as planned? This and other mysteries are explored.

While living in Hyde Park, the north side of Chicago provided a space to escape our neighborhood joints and dance in nightclubs like Club Berlin and the Smart Bar.

This week I describe meeting my friend James at a Hyde Park party.

In this episode I describe my low income life of 1988. This included an early morning job unlocking buildings on the University of Chicago campus using a little known passageway that went from Cobb Hall to the Business School.

This week we here a message from my friend Rekha, and I recount an incident driving through Wisconsin.

This week I discuss volunteering for Southend Musicworks, an organization led by Leo Krumpholz that brought alternative music to Chicago from 1987 to 1994.

This week's episode contains a longer than usual message from my friend Joel.

This week I play my sixth outgoing message.

This week's messages is the third from my mom.

In this week's message I talk about going to see Edward Wilkerson's Eight Bold Souls at Salon of Modalisque and Hal Russell's NRG Ensemble at Lower Links in September of 1988.

This week we here a song from Chris Pearson, fellow member of folk/punk/noise band Open Sauce.

This week I discuss going to see Sun Ra at the 1988 Chicago Jazz Festival.

This week I discuss my friend Jason Veitzer and our plans to see Sun Ra at the 1988 Chicago Jazz Festival.

This episode is the first in a trilogy about the 1988 Chicago Jazz Festival. I discuss the Art Ensemble of Chicago.

In this week's episode, I discuss an incident that took place near the University Apartments in Hyde Park leading to my appearance in a Chicago courtroom.

This week I discuss the desegregation of Minnesota schools in the 1970s. I also describe the open school design of Longfellow Elementary in St. Paul. Finally, I highlight the recent initiative by Mayor Melvin Carter to eliminate fines at St. Paul public libraries.

In this episode I examine the history of telemarketing and robocalls--from a 1942 Popular Mechanics article describing an auto-dialer to efforts by the FCC to address the recent resurgence of robocalls.

This episode recalls the old Maxwell Street Market and the first night game at Wrigley field.

In this episode I recall my time writing for the Grey City Journal and discuss the hymn that inspired the title of GCJ. The lyrics by Edwin H. Lewis were inspired by Chicago's 1893 Columbian Exposition and became the University of Chicago's alma mater.

This week’s episode leads me to discuss the “ship of fools” allegory from Michel Foucault’s History of Madness, a brief history of Illinois Central Railroad and the nineteenth century California writer Bret Harte.

Joel's first message leads me to discuss South Chicago's AACM and the 1987 World Series win of the Minnesota Twins.

This episode contains a message from my mom. Since last week was my explainer episode, this is the first actual message I play. The twenty second message provides a nice insight into my mom's personality.