Belgh

For the two or three people who actually read my blog (maybe that's even a little ambitious) I know I haven't posted in a while. I really want to, but I just don't have the time with school and work and school and work and school and work and sleep. I'm not going to promise more posts like everyone else like me in the blogosphere, but I will say I am tired, and that I will only become more tired with time.

Here's a list of 5 creative, progressive things I've been doing besides blogging.

1. Recording an EP: a little more than halfway done

2. Re-teaching myself guitar: always a work in progress.

3. Reading lots of awesome material: Nick Flynn, Charless Chesnutt, Mark Twain, Truman Capote, Allison Bechdel.

4. Thinking about future projects: singular and/or collaborative: auditory, visual, or stenographic.

5. Teaching my cats to play harmonica: not.

Email me for more information about any of the above topics or for more pictures of my cats playing the harmonica.

Pat's Giant Fingerprint

My friend Pat, whom I interviewed a month or two ago for this blog, finally got his Sculpture up on Northern Illinois University's Jack Arends Art Building.

Man, can you tell he is excited? From what I understand, it took quite some time for Pat to be able to finally plat his fingerprint on the building because of the bureaucracy of the university and the union needed to hang the sculpture. A while back he told me it was just sitting in his studio collecting dust. Here is a cool, short video made by Dan Wilcox at the Northern Star about Pat's giant fingerprint.

Good People @ The Benson Club

The audio for this video can be found here.

Good People is...

Mic Anderson

Tommy Gilbert

Dan Monaghan

This video was recorded by Shannon Spicer and edited by John Benson.

Enjoy!

Good People live @ The Benson Club from Foamface on Vimeo.

NIU school shooting pt. 2

A second shooting took place at NIU two weeks ago. It happened two years and two weeks after the first shooting that took place in Cole Hall. I went to the press conference that took place that morning. I was one of maybe 10 students there. I felt like the only student who wasn't a witness to the shooting. I scribbled notes in a notebook the entire time. Here's what I had to say.

Who in this room has been up since 4:00?

Red, black and blue.

Reporters talk loudly with other reporters. Cracking jokes. Emotionless people reporting emotions.

Solemn students quietly whispering to each other. I am represented by them.

The reporters sigh when it is announced that the president will be late. Like time is more important than life.

A reporter asks the students in front of me if she can get an interview. The students decline. She looks at my notebook and smiles the way one colleague smiles to another; downward.

The president is here with his loud shoes.

The reporters hush. The students remain quiet.

"Isolated incident. Two individuals. Normal operations continue. Information hotlines. Counseling services. Continuous updates. Redundant. Unambiguous. 3:29 am. Stevenson North. 3:30. 3:34. 3:36. 3:48. 4:30. 5:03"

All clear...

John Peters says 2/14 like America says 9/11. The day has been stained.

My vision is blurry. Lack of water? Lack of coffee? I have both. The whites are turning whiter. The darks are becoming brighter.